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Atlantean Disparates
The Atlanteans and the City of Atlantis Some mages have dreams or visions, of their avatars' past lives. This is a fairly common occurence. A small fragment of those mages, however, have visions that travel far back, to an ancient city and island connected to the sea. The city that mages and mortals alike speak of as a rumor and old story, a utopia called Atlantis, spoken of in various cultures, but most well known in how Plato spoke of it, and the stories of those there offending the gods and being cast into the sea. The reality, and yes, there IS a reality, is that the city of Atlantis wasn't a mortal utopia filled with an isolated people. It was a magical city, occupied by some of the most powerful and wise mages of the time. What was said to be an offense to the gods was truly a backlash of epic proportions when the mages attempted to use their direct connection to the magical realms of their paradigm (The 'Highest Realms') to ascend prematurely, which shattered the city's support, killing most of the mages and sinking the majority of the city into the sea (or as some mages claim, into an ancient equivalent of a Paradox realm, given the lack of true physical evidence in modern times). Most of the other information is fuzzy at best, as Dreams, Visions, Avatar memory, and even the most potent Time magic seems to be obscured by the magical energy of the city's destruction, making it difficult to know much for certain about the exact events both prior to and leading up to the destruction. Many say that various spiritual beasts were created in the energy, which took it upon themselves to make certain the city can never be known of as more than a story, to punish the impudence of those responsible. Atlanteans Today Most of the mages that were caught in the city during its backlash were not only killed, but their avatars shredded, or perhaps trapped in pocket realms, kept from the world. Some few, the stronger ones of the time (Though they may have been weakened in the process; there's no Avatar background requirement as such) managed to reincarnate as normal. Some did immediately, whereas others waited centuries before doing so again. This being the case, most of these mages have avatars with strong memories in one form or another (Dream or Past Life, mechanically). Usually, they recall fragmented shards of the one or more mages their avatars represent from the time, and thus know a little bit about the city, and about the Paradigm connected. The obscuring nature of the city's demise, however, does mean there's often some minor differences in how a given Atlantean pair sees things. Some facts, however, are fairly universal. Paradigm and Cosmology For details about Atalntean Paradigms, you should see the sheets of the mages (And sorcerers) listed below. Some basics are constant, though, and can be summarized as follows: *There's a set of 3 Realms above the Epiphanies, describing not the height of human consciousness, but the height of magic and creation. Each of these realms commands a set of three spheres *Magic works by bringing down aspects of these realms into reality. The closer a realm is to these, the easier magic is (Thus why magic in the umbra is more often coincidental, for instance). *The better you understand and the closer your soul gets to the 'resonance' of these realms, the more potent your magical understanding. Modern Remnants of the City Today, the most common remains of the city's appearance exist as various Dream Realms, specifically the Demesnes of the mages with the survivng avatars of the time. These cities are generally empty, but 'intact' otherwise, although the fabled Towers or Fountains or similar that modern Atlantean mages say were the connection to the Highest Realms are notably gone, with nothing but dried pools are tower ruins in their place, a reminder of the mistakes made. One feature of note about these cities is that often, when the mages who visit them most meet each other, the realms attempt to merge, becoming stronger. The stronger they become, however, the clearer they are to others... Dangerous Remains Some of the creatures created by the backlash are still around. These spirits, a combination of astral umbrood, paradox spirits, and dream spirits, are said to be the same created by that event. In general they have various broods, some responsible for removing 'correct' information from the world, some from removign physical Artifacts that survived, and some for removing Atlanteans themselves. Mechanics and Atlantean Characters While at best a Disparate craft, and at worst a delusional Orphan cabal, depending who you ask, there are some physical advantages that the Atlanteans possess. Artifacts There's very little in the way of physical remains of the city, but most that mages do come in contact with contain a remnant of magic. Atlantean Artifacts are a common means of an Atlantean Awakening, as well, often times being 'bound' to a specific avatar and Awakening it once united. There's no hard mechanics for what might be found, although surviving Atlantean Fetishes are just about unheard of; the spirits have long since been released from any remains. Totem This will be described better when ICly made available. Essentially, though, a spirit known as Facets of the Realm, representing the three Highest Realms, will be available for Atlantean and Atalntean-aligned cabals to take as a totem. The one that will be used by the Atlantean Legacy cabal can be seen here: http://im-chat.com/users/charsheets/csheet.asp?id=22990 Spheres Atlanteans don't have Factions, per se, but the Highest Realm they Awaken to defines three possible Spheres for their Primary. Other than that, they don't have a static Specialty sphere, similar to Orphans and Hollow Ones. The three sphere sets ar elisted below, and for examples of what the Realms they're attached to are called, see one of the Atlantean sheets, as names vary slightly. *Mind, Prime, and Spirit are controlled by the Realm that represents more ephemeral concerns, things hard to measure or really prove the existence of without magic; the raw power of creation, the spiritual, and the mental. *Correspondence, Entropy, and Time are controlled by the Realm that represents 'measurable', but mostly 'conceptual' things, such as distance and space, fate and degradation, and the passage of time. *Forces, Life, and Matter are controlled by the Realm that defines the 'physical' or 'perceptible' aspects of reality, such as heat and light, living things, and inanimate objects. Other Character Creation Notes As a general rule, an Atlantean that knows they're an Atlantean has one or more dots of Dream and/or Past Life (The latter a bit more likely). Higher ratings represent a better memory. Even a single dot though can explain how they know their paradigm so well. Atlanteans often know more than one language, with Greek and Latin being common. Ancient Greek is usually the facility of Past Life recollection, and the Atlantean Language itself has yet to be discovered in its entirety, but some Atlanteans have been starting to recall fragments of it, as represented by the Atlantean Tongue background. Demesnes are common, usually reflecting the Atlantean City itself, and as mentioned, often combined with that of other Atlanteans (mechanically, this means it can be taken as a shared background). Similarly, Lucid Dreaming is useful for those that drift beyond their own Dream Realms, or even just want to keep their own steady. Current Atlantean Characters These characters have Avatars directly descended from those of mages within the city. *Allan Meison (Mind-primary, Dream/Astral oriented, played by Falco1029) *Zelinda Ditson (Correspondence-primary, crafting oriented, played by Kes) *Regan Cyncige (Sorcerer, Oneiromancy/Mana-Manipulation, played by Brisen) *Jason Augustas (In-progress, Unawakened yet, by Conflicted) Characters with Atlantean Ties These characters are non-mages/sorcerers, mages with avatars connected to but not directly from the city, or otherwise have connections to the city or island but without an avatar directly from it. *(insert here)